Blanket Scenario
by Firetigeress
Summary: A fanfic written in response to a challenge presented on one of the MLs a VEEEEERY long time ago. And it's still not yet finished. ^_^;; Wonder who the people involved are? Read and find out, my friends... *grin* (Currently static at two chapters. Sufferi
1. What do you MEAN it's snowing?

Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 **

_Author's Note: This fic takes place after Neon and Jishou have completed a mission and are returning back to Kurei's mansion. It is NOT a Neon x Jishou fic. (I really don't see those two together, [besides, I'm horrible at mush. ^_^] though it'll probably be hilarious to do a romantic fic on that pair… *snickers*) It's only meant to try and develop Jishou further, a character who gets extremely little coverage despite the fact that he's one of the Uruha Juushinshuu, and find out why Neon and Jishou seem to be such good friends later on in the series (Neon cries when he is killed by Magensha [Manga only, I think]), even though they're clearly seen arguing a lot before the Urabutousatsujin. (Volume 15 of the manga)_

"Jishou, could you please slow down?" Neon grumbled as she trailed behind the tall, well-built man.

"It's not like we're in a hurry to get back to the mansion! What are you, a steamroller?" 

Stopping so suddenly that she nearly crashed into his back, he turned around and scowled at her.

"Stop your sniping, woman! Why don't you try walking faster instead? It's not my fault women are such weaklings!" He pronounced the word "woman" almost as if it were an insult. 

Neon's eyes blazed with anger and she had the momentary urge to pick up her fukyo waon and blast him in the face with a nice, painful Rhapsody. It was widely known that there was no love lost between the two Uruha Assassins. Their training sessions together almost invariably ended up with the two refusing to speak to each other, and an easy-going Raiha trying to patch things up between the two. As it was, she gripped the afore-mentioned madougu so tightly that her knuckles turned white. 

_I must keep calm_. She told herself. She didn't think Kurei would be too pleased if she had to drag an unconscious – _Or dead,_ she added mentally with satisfaction – companion all the way back. _I must keep calm. I must keep calm._ She repeated that phrase over and over in her mind like a mantra as she trudged after the subject of her thoughts, various bloody scenarios flashing through her mind. She wondered what it would be like to wrap her hands around his throat and squeeze… 

Suddenly, Jishou stopped in his tracks again, and this time Neon succeeded in smashing face first into him. It didn't help that the man was as well muscled and as solidly built as an ox. Or, to the auburn-haired musician, more like a rock. She tried to feel her nose (or what was left of it) to see how much damage had been dealt, but it was numb from pain. 

"Itai! What the hell do you think you're doing, you asshole?!" she shrieked at him. Her temper had already been at its boiling point, but enough was enough. If he thought she was going to just stand by and take all this abuse quietly, he had better think again. Swinging her flute at him, it connected with the target's head with a resounding "THWACK!" 

"OW! WOULD YOU QUIT IT?!" Jishou roared as he tried to fend off her barrage of blows as she came at him with her flute left, right and center. 

"I DIDN'T MEAN IT, OKAY? NOW STOP HITTING ME!" 

Glaring at him, she lowered her flute. Crossing her arms, she continued to glower silently at him as he massaged his head gingerly. 

" So if your attempt to break my nose wasn't done on purpose, pray tell me, what were you trying to achieve by stopping in the middle of the road like a buffoon?" she asked, voice dripping with barely concealed anger. 

"Did it occur to you that if you had been patient enough to _wait_, instead of trying to bludgeon me to death with your 'flute of doom', _(Author's note: Those in the Uruha RPG will find this phrase familiar. ^_^) _I would have explained my reason to you?" The glaring contest continued the two before he rolled his eyes again and looked away, muttering something which sounded very much like, "Touchy wench". Neon bristled. Before she could lunge at him again, however, he spoke. 

"It's snowing." 

Neon was about to explode at him for making such a silly statement like that, but caught sight of the expression on his face and stopped. It was deadly serious. 

"And not just any snow either. Look around you. Don't you think it's falling a bit too quickly? I think we're in for a blizzard." 

Gazing around her, Neon's eyes widened. She had not noticed the snow, being too preoccupied in her earlier thoughts. But now, even as she looked, the snowflakes seemed to fall faster and faster. This was bad news. Very bad. The two were not equipped to deal with a situation such as this. The weather reports back home had said that it wasn't supposed to start snowing in this area until next week, let alone a blizzard, and thus they had not expected one. 

"I'm going to _kill_ the weatherman once we reach home," Neon muttered as brushed some snow off her shoulder. 

"Save that for later," Jishou advised. "We need to look for some shelter first." 

With that, the two set off, hurrying as much as they could without actually running. Their progress was hindered by the snow that continued to fall thickly around them, piling up into thick drifts that they practically had to wade through. If they find shelter any time soon, they would certainly end up frozen, as stiff and cold as marble statues. Neon idly wondered what it would be like to perish like that instead of the way she had always thought she would go - to die for her one and only love. 

She was suddenly jolted out of her thoughts as she felt Jishou poke her in the ribs. 

"What?" she asked. Her tone was neutral and lacked the usual bite it had whenever she was talking to someone she disliked – in this case, Jishou. This was not the time to quarrel with her fellow assassin. They would need to cooperate and work together if they wanted to survive the storm. Besides, she just didn't have the strength right now to shout at him; she could feel the beginnings of a headache coming on. 

Jishou was slightly surprised that she hadn't snapped at him, but decided to take it as a blessing. He didn't know how long this temporary truce between them would last, but he'll be damned if he didn't take advantage of it for now. 

"I think I see a building up ahead," the blonde, shaggy haired man nodded his head in the direction he was indicating. A barely recognizable blob of brown could be seen, threatening to be overwhelmed by the stark whiteness of the snow around it. 

"It looks a little rundown, but it's only temporary, anyway. I'm sure it'll be sufficient enough to protect us until the worse of the storm is over," he said as the two reached the building. The door swung open as he pushed it lightly, its rusty hinges creaking their protest. 

"I think it's deserted," he remarked, scanning the contents of the house. 

"And judging from the state of it, it's not been used for a _very _long time," Neon replied dryly, slowly running a finger along a table, all that remained of the previous owner's furniture besides the three chairs surrounding it.looked to be on the verge of collapse. When she lifted her hand, her finger was coated with grey dust. A closer inspection revealed that there was what seemed to be an inch-thick layer of dust decorating the surface. 

"I wouldn't call this place 'a little rundown', Jishou. More like'rickety-shack-covered-in-dust-accumulated-over-what-seems-like-a-millenia'," she commented sarcastically but not unkindly. She wasn't blaming him for something which wasn't his fault, she was simply letting him know her views. 

Jishou simply shrugged his shoulders.

"At least we're safe from the blizzard," he replied. Then he noticed that Neon was frowning worriedly. 

"What's wrong?" 

"Even though we're sheltered from the snow, the cold air still sweeps in through the cracks in the walls. They aren't very well made; Swiss cheese would probably keep us warmer than these rotting boards." 

"You're exaggerating, aren't you?" 

"Of course I'm exaggerating. But not by too much. I seriously doubt we'll be able to keep warm in this shack. We're safe from being smothered in the snow outside, of course, but I doubt we'll be of much use to Kurei-sama after we freeze to death. And the only other thing we have here besides the decaying furniture is this." She bent down, picked something off the ground and held it up. It was a thin piece of what seemed to have been a blanket but was now… not a blanket. It would be rather hard to describe just exactly how torn and tattered it was, so let us be prudent and not waste the words. Leave the visuals up to your imagination. 

Jishou, needless to say, was horrified. 

"You mean we've only got one blanket?" he practically shrieked, eyes threatening to pop out of their sockets. 

Neon nodded, looking none too happy herself, although she managed to mask it much better than her fellow Uruha Asassin. 

"I guess that means we're going to have to share it," she said in a monotone, trying very hard not to let her distaste show on her face. In an ordinary situation, just being in the same _room_ as him was enough to spark off an argument between the two. But this was no ordinary situation. 

Although both of them were clearly unhappy about it, they had no choice but to share the blanket. What made matters worse was the blanket wasn't exactly what one would call big. By unspoken agreement, Neon rolled over to rest on her right, while Jishou on his left, backs facing each other. That way they could make all the disgusted faces they wanted to without offending the other. Not that they minded the offending bit, – heck, they did it all the time! – it was just that neither was in the mood to quarrel. 

"You aren't going to do anything funny, are you, Jishou?" Neon asked him warily from over her shoulder. 

His eyes widened before he burst out laughing. 

"What's so funny?" she snapped. 

"You?" he spluttered, almost choking with laughter. "Who in his right mind would even want to go _near_ a woman as fat and ugly as you? You're so fat you probably don't even need this blanket to keep warm!" 

So much for their temporary truce. 

Neon seethed. Stifling an urge to throttle him, she waited until he had finished chuckling. 

"Well then," she shot back, voice deceptively calm. "I suppose you don't have to worry about freezing to death either. I've heard that most of our body heat is lost from our heads, and since you have nothing but empty air in yours…" she let her voice trail off. 

Jishou's back stiffened, but he kept quiet and simply grunted, not bothering to reply. And he did start it, after all. Besides, he knew when he was beaten. When provoked, Neon could deliver the most lethal tongue-lashings that would leave even the most eloquent of speakers wincing, and now was one of those times. He _really_ didn't want to spend the rest of the night trading spiteful insults. 

The auburn haired musician smiled secretly to herself. She knew it was petty to gloat over such as this, but Neon could be like that sometimes. Closing her eyes, her last thoughts before she drifted off to sleep was that she really was very cold.


	2. Snowballs and a Jyuushinshuu don't go we...

Chapter 2 Chapter 2 

The next day, Jishou woke up with a crick in the neck from sleeping on the floor, and found that the reason behind his icicle feet was that the blanket had been thrown off him, exposing his feet to the wintry blasts that nipped and stung his skin. Neon had been right about the walls. And, speaking of Neon… He sat up and, rubbing his bleary eyes, looked around for her so he could scream at her for hogging the blanket.

A particularly wicked wind smashed headlong into his face as he swiveled his head to and fro to look for his missing companion. His eyes traveled over the collapsing furniture, his gaze sliding off the walls that so resembled a sieve. And – was that a flash of red out of the corner of his eye? No – it was just the very old and very mouldy tablecloth that looked like it would have been perfectly at home sitting on a fungi collector's tabletop. There were things growing on it that Jishou was sure had not been discovered before – not that anybody would want to discover them, anyway. (Except perhaps the afore-mentioned fungi collector, IF there was such a thing as a fungi collector.)

Tearing his eyes away from the enormous green-brown mass of what was practically a forest in its own right (Was it just him, or did it just _move_?), he resumed his inspection of the shack… er, cabin.

Neon was nowhere in sight.

Needless to say, Jishou was in a foul mood.

After grumpily throwing off the blanket and trying to rub some life back into his numb feet, he limped over to the window and peered out. It was still snowing, something that did NOT help to improve his mood in the least as the pins-and-needles in his slowly reviving feet hit him in full force. Cursing, he gave his feet a final knead, expelling the last of the pain, then fumbled the window-latch open and pushed the window open.

Sticking his head out of the window (Which was buffeted with yet ANOTHER blast of chilly wind – he was starting to feel as though tiny goblins were banging at the sides of his head with sledge hammers), he spotted a blob of red against the stark white of the frost-encrusted scenery. Had he not been in such a bad mood, he probably would have taken a moment to admire his surroundings. All around him, it looked as if someone had taken a pristine-white blanket and then thrown it onto the trees and ground – a very large blanket, at that. Tree branches laden with gleaming crystals of snow glinted and winked at him. Sunlight struck the powdered diamonds on the ground, the light reflecting off the tiny facets and casting a gentle glow about the whole place. It almost seemed as if he had woken up and walked into a stunningly gorgeous picture. It was the perfect white Christmas that so many people longed for – for indeed, Jishou had suddenly remembered that today was the 25th of December.

Too bad he wasn't in the mood to enjoy any it.

It was not like he had ever celebrated Christmas after joining the Uruha, anyway.

Almost immediately, pictures popped up in his head unbidden as he suddenly imagined what Christmas with the rest of the Jyushinshuu would be like… and promptly winced at the prospect of Kurenai being made to stand at the top of a pine tree in place of an angel and burning the house (excuse me, _mansion_) down. Pushing the last remainders of his insane daydream (nightmare?) out of his mind, Jishou opened his mouth wide, getting ready to shout out his displeasure at the cause behind it…

And promptly shut it as he heard the tinkling of child-like laughter. Bewildered, he stared harder at the auburn blob. Had he just heard Neon _laugh_? Yes, he had heard Neon laugh in that mirthless, mocking way of hers before, had seen her giggle prettily whenever she had to act the part of a brainless bimbo to lure her male victims into a trap, but never had he heard this expression of sheer, untainted joy. It simply wasn't done in the Uruha. Displaying any sign of emotion would be to expose your inner weaknesses. It was unheard of for an Uruha - especially one of the elite Uruha Jyushinshuu - to do such a thing.

And yet here she was, doing something that was practically sacrilegious. What could have caused this sudden change? Could it be because she thought he was still sleeping, and that no one else was around? Perhaps her brain had frozen from the cold? Whatever the reason, he was curious now. And when one is curious, one will always want to find out the reason behind the thing that was making him curious. Pulling his head back in, he quietly closed the window, then strode over to the door. Being careful not to make too much noise, he opened it, cringing as the hinges squealed indignantly, and stepped into the fairytale landscape.

It was still snowing. For a brief moment, the Jyushinshuu forgot what he had come out to do, and simply stood still, letting the snowflakes drift gently down towards him. Holding his hands outstretched, he cupped them and watched as the frozen glass-like shards landed on them, only to melt as they came into contact with the warm surface of his skin. A particularly large one got caught in his eyelash, and before he could brush it off, it had melted and some of the resulting water had trickled into his eye. Rubbing it painfully, his vision finally cleared, and he noticed that Neon was standing in front, her back to him.

He watched silently as she looked up towards the sky, spreading her arms wide as if to embrace the flurry of feathers descending. Then, he heard it again – her soft laughter as she twirled round and round, as if dancing for an unseen audience. The snowflakes that landed on her hair seemed to form a delicately fragile veil, whilst those that fell past her shoulders seemed to spread out to form a cloak of shimmering, ever moving, ever changing crystal. As she whirled, Jishou caught a glimpse of her face, and was surprised to see that, unlike the usual sneer or glare she usually had, the expression on her face was relaxed, one of simple, innocently pure delight.

Finally, Neon came to a stop, and curtseyed to her unseen audience, her radiantly rapturous smile fading away as she suddenly found herself face to face with Jishou. She blushed a brilliant vermilion, and her smile was immediately replaced with her usual scowl.

"How long have you been spying on me?" she snarled, her anger barely masking the embarrassed edge in her voice.

"Whoa, calm down," Jishou exclaimed, holding his hands up in a "surrender" position. Not only was he still in shock over the scene he had previously witnessed, he also didn't want to end up fighting with her – it was too cold for that. Besides, it was Christmas… she didn't deserve to have it spoiled by spending the entire time quarreling with him or devising ways to blast him to pieces.

Now where did _that_ last thought come from? He usually couldn't care less about a silly thing like ruining someone's Christmas. Heck, what he _usually_ would do would be to go out of his way to ruin it in the first place just to tick her off.

"How _long_?" She repeated, a dangerous glint in her eye.

He sighed. Didn't she ever give up?

"Not very long," he replied vaguely, shrugging. Before she could glare at him again, he walked a few paces away from her and sat on the snow.

"Look, I don't want to fight. I'm already freezing as it is. I just came out here to admire the scenery, all right? It's not like I _wanted_ to see you doing whatever you were doing." As he spoke over his shoulder to her, he gathered clumps of snow and patted them, trying to make them stick together. He resisted the urge to remark that the reason why he was freezing was because a certain someone had hogged the blanket – as much as he wanted to, he knew it would be suicide to provoke a riled-up Neon even more.

What on earth has come over me? Since when have I ever quailed over the prospect of facing the wrath of such a weak woman, especially Neon? It must be the cold… I'm sure it's the cold…

Behind him, there was a slight pause, then he heard her give a snort of disbelief and felt her move away from him, sitting down on a nearby log. It seemed that she wasn't in the mood to quarrel either.

Ignoring her, (It was so _unusual_ to have Neon remain silent for once, instead of screaming at him like she usually did) he continued to mold the lump of snow in front of him, adding a few sticks and stones - he had found them on the ground beside him - whenever he deemed it necessary. Soon, he was finished. Dusting off his hands, he pulled them away to reveal a miniature snowman. Sitting back, he scrutinized his creation critically. It was tilting slightly to the right, but other than that, it was perfect. Well, 'perfect' wasn't really the right word for two balls of balls of snow mashed together then randomly peppered with odds and ends to create the semblance of a face, but it was perfect to him, at least. And wasn't that all that mattered?

"Your sculpture's lopsided," he heard someone behind him remark dryly. The man turned around and scowled irately at Neon, whose mouth was twisted in amusement. So absorbed had he been in his quest of creating 'art' that he hadn't even heard her come up behind him.

"I _know_ that. You didn't have to tell me. And I don't need the opinions of a pathetic _woman_." He stressed the last word.

"My, my, touchy, aren't we? And I thought you were the one who was always complaining that I get irritated at the drop of a hat." Neon replied, idly picking up a handful of snow. She rolled it around her palms, staring down thoughtfully at the rapidly forming ball.

He was surprised she hadn't snapped at him. She usually hated it whenever he degraded women, she being one herself, of course.

_Nah, I wouldn't really call her a woman._ He thought. _She's too ferocious to be one. Good women are supposed to be gentle, kind and good housekeepers, and always listen to whatever their husbands tell them. Neon's more of the female demon sort. _He smirked at the last thought. She certainly behaved like one, what with her constant screaming and screeching.

"Jishou?" he heard her voice behind him.

Still preoccupied with his thoughts about Demonic Neon, and fighting down an urge to snicker, he unthinkingly turned around.

"Yes?" he asked.

"WHAP!" was the answer he received in return. He blinked through snow-encrusted eyebrows. Was that a snowball smushed against his frozen and rapidly getting colder face? It appeared so.

Blink, blink.

"That, my dear Jishou, is what you get for looking down on a _woman_," Neon said sweetly, dusting off her hands and getting off the log. She looked up at the sky.

"The roads are still not fit to travel yet. I think another day should do it… most of the snow'll probably be melted by then. Besides, it's getting dark. We'll probably be able to leave for the mansion tomorrow."

She turned around to re-enter the cabin and gave him one last look over her shoulder. Jishou, his numb brain still struggling to function, could only gape at her foolishly. She had a genuine, honest-to-goodness smile on her face once again, but this time, instead of being only for a non-existent audience, it was directed at him.

"Thanks for making the effort to try not to ruin Christmas this year for me. Yes, I'm not as stupid as I seem. I _know_ what you were trying to do. And I appreciate it. Too bad it kind of failed toward the end." She made a face.

"Merry Christmas to you too."

She opened the door and walked through the doorway, her words floating back towards him.

"Oh yes. And you'd better clean the snow off your face before you get inside. We wouldn't want you dripping water on the floor now, would we?"

_Author's Note: In case you were wondering, no, I don't celebrate Christmas. ^_^;; I have NO idea how that idea popped into my head - it just did. Oh well. *shrugs* _

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